Clerked under Thurgood Marshall (1945-1946)Research assistant at the Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDEF) (1946-1949)Associate Special Counsel at the LDEF (1949-1961)Associate counsel of the LDEF (1961-1964)Appointed to the New York Senate (1964-1966)Borough president of Manhattan (1965-1966)Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming chief judge in 1982 (1966-2005)

Firsts:

Black female to argue before the Supreme Court (1961)African American and woman to serve as borough president of Manhattan (1965)African American female appointed to the Federal Bench (1966)Woman to serve as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Accomplishments:

Only Woman on the legal team for Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954)Awarded the Medal for Excellence from Columbia Law School (1987)Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1993)Awarded the Presidential Citizen Medal by President Bill Clinton (2001)Awarded the Springarn Medal by the NAACP (2003)